It was good to see that in England and Wales Forensic Science is attracting more attention of government and that now steps are made to improve the system. Also the realization that we have to move from the lab to the crime scene with new mobile techniques to have "real time" results, will lead to changes in the system. However quality assurance remains vital in these new developments, and we see much progress is made with new standards.
Last month at the AAFS (American Academy of Forensic Sciences) it was good to see that the OSACs and the efforts on improving the quality of forensic science will be visible in new standards. Also the AAFS is a SDO for groups that were not handled by others. And moreover the standard will be freely available. During this meeting it was also good to see that the Brazilian Academy of Forensic Science, is now an affiliate member academy.
In the EU IAI meeting were I was at the Board of Directors meeting in Brussels, new developments were also seen. The meeting in October of the IAI at Interpol in Lyon will be very nice, and we will also handle digital evidence, face comparison and of course fingerprints during this fingerprints. The webinars also appear to be a great success.
And this month the DFRWS EU (Digital Forensic Research Workshop ) in Lausanne will be held, so we also see a very nice program here with many new developments and good workshops. 
Also at the NFI, I had followed a very nice course by Reinoud Stoel on context effects, which are really applicable in practice. So we try to prevent the context effects within our cases, and although it might take more time, it also is expected to improve the quality of our forensic examinations.